No. 1 (Esplanade) Mine Site Memorial Plaque
On this site in 1883, the Vancouver Coal Company opened the No. 1 Esplanade Mine with workings that later extended beyond Newcastle and Protection Islands and the Nanaimo River. Workers at the mine produced 18 million tons of coal, more than any other mine on Vancouver Island, by the time it was closed in 1938. The memorial plaque remembers the 150 miners who lost their lives in the 1887 mine explosion.
Plaque courtesy of the BC Labour Heritage Centre's project Plaques Around the Province. project